


Forsaken

by NoizyMori



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aliens, Destroyed Planet, Factions, Gen, Misunderstood Rescue Mission, Non-Binary OC, Slavery, Weapon Dealer, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-05 00:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17314985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoizyMori/pseuds/NoizyMori
Summary: Evinzoneve is one of the last of an ancient race. They live by building weapons for the remaining Galran "Factions". Their world is forever changed when the Paladins of Voltron mistake Evinzoneve's homing beacon for a distress signal, causing the Paladins to fall into the middle of one of the Factions usual raids on the alien's home base. Evinzoneve is thrust into a world of recovery, but betrayal lurks where they least expect it.





	Forsaken

**Author's Note:**

> This story was started before Season 8 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, so anything in S8 is void/has not happened (yet).

"Alright, team, look alive! You're closing in on Kamiroden now." Shiro's voice commanded over the telecommunicator, echoing statically through the Paladins' helmets. The Lions were flying ahead of the Atlas, scouting for a landing space as well as watching for enemy fighters.

Even with the rise of peace across the universe, there were still hostile factions that served in the name of the Galran Empire. The Paladins hadn't encountered an opposing party yet, giving them all the more reason to be wary until they knew the planet was safe.

Earlier this morning, the Atlas had received an SOS signal from a moon at the edge of the Roden System. It seemed there was a signal like this every day, each one pinging further from them than the last. It was mostly small colonies that the Factions believed they could still control in order to ultimately piece back together the Galran Empire. It was easy enough to drive back the small fleets, but the sheer number of these scattered Factions kept the Paladins on their toes. Except today it seemed like the entire system of Roden lit up with alerts before localizing on a large planet named Kamiroden.

Approaching the sector of Roden still pinging on their maps, the team discovered that it wasn't Kamiroden that was signalling them, but one of the small moons orbiting the gaseous planet.

"Shiro, there's too much debris. I don't think the Atlas will make it through." Keith radioed back to the larger ship from Black. The moon had multiple rings of debris around it, each shifting slowly as if to swallow the small body.

"No problem, we can activate the particle barrier and the castle's weapons should hold up if we're attacked." Shiro responded, and soon the blue shield materialized around the Atlas.

 

* * *

 

Actually reaching the surface of the moon proved to be quite the chore. Past the rings of debris, the moon was enveloped in an endless dust storm. But after some careful maneuvering and luckily having a mostly flat surface, the Lions landed safely on the moon. Outside, the storm continued to whip around them.

"What's the plan, Keith?" Lance questioned their leader. There was a moment of silence, save for the wind picking up and throwing rocks against their Lions now.

"Shiro, can you tell which direction we need to head for the signal?"

Static.

"The dust seems to be interfering with the communication system," Pidge piped up, already running diagnostics to reconnect to the Atlas. The SOS was also glitchy, occasionally popping up but disappearing before they could get a definite location on it.

"Maybe we should just wait?" Hunk suggested. "I mean, how hard could it be to notice five giant robot lions? Whoever sent the signal will definitely be expecting us."

"Hunk, do you not see that storm? There's NO WAY someone is going to see us through that. Plus, who the heck would be out right now!" Lance reprimanded the Yellow Paladin, waving his arms in the general direction of the front his the Lion to clarify his point.

"Well, it was an idea," Hunk defended quietly.

"I think we should split up. We'll cover more ground and hopefully find some kind of building that the signal is coming from," Allura spoke next. The other Paladins seemed to debate the idea before nodding to themselves.

"You heard the princess, let's split up," Keith finalized. "Pidge, Allura, and Hunk, you three go south. Lance, you're with me. We regroup if we don't find anything in ten." Three shouts of acknowledgement ensued as well as one 'aww, why Keith'.

The Green, Blue, and Yellow Lions went one direction, and the Red and Black flew the other. They stayed close enough to see the ground and slow enough as to avoid obstacles when needed. The landscape so far, though, seemed pretty bleak and barren.

"Are we really sure that there's even anyone here, Keith?" Lance asked after a few minutes of nothing but dust and dirt.

"Did you not pay attention this morning? The whole system lit up. That's not something to ignore."

"Well, maybe the Atlas glitched. Didn't you think of that? There's no way an uninhabitable planet can--" The Red Paladin's tirade was cut short by a shout from the Black Lion.

"Lance, look out!" Lance looked up just in time to see a series of cables in front of Red before they ultimately entrapped the Lion, bringing it crashing into the ground.

"Oh come on, what's the idea here!" The trapped Paladin shouted, picking himself up from his half-falling-out-of-his-seat position. Red let out a soft murmur, before her system went dark. Keith and Black settled beside them.

"Lance, are you alright?" The Black Paladin exited his Lion swiftly, using his jetpack to shoot over to the Red Lion. The air outside the Lion was thicker than it appeared, and even with the air filter on the helmet, Keith still felt like he was choking on dust and smog.

"I'm fine, but Red's down for a bit. What did I hit?" Lance made his way out of the cockpit, exiting the lion through her slightly gaping mouth. Keith shrugged and shook his head, and the two looked at the tangled mess around Red.

"Looks like electricity wires or something." Keith muttered, walking along one of the downed lines.

"So, if we follow them, they'll take us to whoever sent up the SOS!" Lance exclaimed as if they weren't both thinking it. He smirked to himself with pride before realizing that Keith was now a hazy figure walking away. "Hey, wait up!" The Red Paladin used a mix of trotting and jetpacking to catch up to the other Paladin.

"Pidge, Allura, Hunk, do you read me? I've found something so head my direction." Keith's order was met with radio silence while Lance protested.

"You found? I'm the one that ran into it!" he shouted as if credit had just been stolen from a great achievement. Keith ignored him.

"Pidge, Allura, Hunk, come in."

More silence.

Lance threw up his arms. "Great, now we're gonna be--"

Something shot past the two, stopping them dead in their tracks. Just ahead, a large figure stood holding a bulky and outdated blaster. They each reached for their bayards at their sides, but another shot much closer to them put a stop to that.

"We are the Paladins of Voltron. We're here in response to an SOS signal we received." Keith shouted to the newcomer. The cloaked figure said nothing and made no movement to lower their weapon. "Did you signal for help?" the Black Paladin persisted. A heavy silence filled the air, and the Paladins realized that the dust storm had died down. Their visibility range had increased, and so it seemed was the case for the other person as well. They lowered their blaster, looking past Keith and Lance to the proudly standing Black Lion and crumbled Red. The Paladins relaxed a bit but didn't take their eyes off the mysterious figure.

After a moment of studying the giant robots in the distance, the helmet over the bulky cloak whipped side to side, before they waved their blaster to their right and began to hurriedly walk in that direction. Lance looked suspiciously after the person, then questioningly at Keith. The Black Paladin seemed to sense the urgency behind the mysterious person's actions, and started after them.

"Come on, man, let's just go back to the lions, find the others, and say we didn't find anything. This person is obviously fine, there's no Faction attacking, and for all we know they're just gonna kill us as soon as we go wherever they're going!" Lance loudly protested in vain. He sighed, accepted his inevitable fate, and followed Keith.

The figure lead them to a large mound of dirt, in which an equally large door was set. Pressing something on their wrist, the door groaned as it slid open a fraction for its master. The three entered a surprisingly small room, considering the size of the door, which slid shut once again behind them. An engine engaged somewhere, and the Paladins felt their air filters clear up a bit. Once the purifier had sufficiently pressurized the room and cleaned the air, the engine clicked off with a ding and the chamber was washed in a green tint. The figure beside the Paladins immediately began shedding their many, many layers. With each removed cloak, coat, jacket, and boots, the once bulky person was now rather slim. Last to be removed was the helmet, which made the person look almost like a life-sized bobble-head. Keith was intrigued, but tried keeping his staring to a minimum as he removed his own helmet. Lance, on the other hand, was full on gaping at the person.

A thin grey braid fell from the helmet before it was even fully removed, long enough to just barely brush along the ground. Apart from the braid, the rest of their hair was short and choppy, like a child had taken safety scissors to it. Keith could already sense Lance's thoughts at this point, and the mysterious person seemed to pick up on the staring as well. They turned, vivid yellow eyes glaring into the two. They had a childlike, androgynous face, with almost no outstanding features aside from their eyes and one small horn protruding from between the bangs on their forehead. The rest of them seemed to be just as doll-like, with a smooth torso and thin limbs, and there didn't look to be a single muscle under their tight-fitting clothes.

"Strip," the doll commanded in an impatient tone, placing a hand on their hip. This snapped Lance out of his daze, but not from his delusion.

"Woah there, at least tell me your name first, miss...?" Lance grinned. He received nothing but a sharper glare.

"Armor. Take it off. I can't have you contaminating my base. If you don't have clothes, there's some just on the other side of the door." They turned sharpy and exited the chamber through a small metal door set opposite the large "base" door. Keith and Lance looked between one another. Either this person trusted the Paladins enough to allow them into their base, or they had enough confidence that they could take down both the larger males if need be.

"Stay on guard," Keith whispered, before removing his armor down to the thin suit underneath and following their host out of the pressure chamber. Lance's jaw dropped.

"Hey, wait, so we're just gonna walk into this death trap? Keith?!" The Red Paladin quickly shook off his own armor, running once again to catch up to the Voltron leader.

As the still-unidentified person walked through the large, empty vicinity, lights clicked on from floor level to illuminate the path. Each step revealed rows of metal crates, many of which were beaten and broken open with contents scattered around. There looked to be a lot of parts for some kind of vehicle, an occasional blaster, and plethora of small empty canisters amongst the mess. The path before them began to narrow, and the person had now scooped up their own braid and began climbing over what looked to be a fallen stack of the metal crates. Lance crept up to Keith and hurriedly whispered.

"Hey, man, this is creepy. I still think we should hightail it outta here." Keith paused, as if honestly debating it, before clambering over the crates to carry on. Lance groaned, but followed begrudgingly.

"So what's your name?" The Black Paladin asked. "And are you...?" The grey-haired host stopped and turned to look at them.

"Evinzoneve. I'm not Galran."

"Evenso..." The Red Paladin's face scrunched up as he stumbled over the name. "You got a nickname or anything?"

Evinzoneve narrowed their eyes at the Paladin once again. "No. Can we keep going now? I'm on a tight schedule here," they demanded impatiently. Lance huffed.  
"We're here to save you, you quiznak! But you don't look like you're in trouble or anything! Let's go, Keith!" Evinzoneve looked confused at this outburst, as well as the odd usage of the old Altean word.

"Save? Trouble?" They paused to think for a moment. "You're not the buyers Enniethnore sent?" Both Paladins froze.

"We don't know who that is," Keith responded. "My name is Keith, and this is Lance. We're Paladins of Voltron, and we received a distress beacon from this location earlier today."

"Voltron... Distress..." Evinzoneve seemed to ponder this, placing a hand to their chin. "I did send out a signal earlier, but it should've only been detectable on my private network. If you guys don't know Enniethnore, how did you access the network?" They suddenly became irate, and grabbed a blaster from a nearby crate, hoisting it up to aim at the Paladins. "Who are you and what do you want?"

Lance threw up his hands. "I told you she was gonna kill us, Keith!"

It was then that the entire hangar seemed to shake with a sudden explosion. Dust fell from the ceiling and a blinding light suddenly filled the dark base. Evinzoneve's eyes widened and they dropped the blaster, turning to a crate. They pulled out what looked like three metal collars, and shoved one at each of the Paladins.

"Put that on if you don't want to die just yet!" They commanded, snapping one around their own neck. A tinted mask appeared over their face and a sleek black shell materialized around the rest of their body. The Paladins quickly copied the smaller person's actions.

"What is this?" Lance asked, admiring the glossy plating along his own arm. His question was either unheard or ignored as Evinzoneve shoved the two of them into an empty, sideways crate with ease.

"Stay quiet," Evinzoneve hissed before sliding the heavy metal lid into place. Though the crate was fairly large, the two teenagers were still crammed against one another. Outside the crate, Evinzoneve faced the only people that thought it polite to bust down the safety door in someone's home. Silhouettes began to appear over the top of the fallen door and scattered crates.

"Evinzoneve," a deep voice sounded, echoing across the metal walls of the hangar.

"Klax." Evinzoneve responded bluntly. The larger body at the front of the pack dropped from a stack of crates, stepping into the illumination of the floor lights.'Klax' -as Evinzoneve referred to him- was largely built, and he was easily ten times the size of the doll.

"Where are my weapons, Evi?" the man cooed as he stretched out his hand, easily wrapping his fingers around Evinzoneve's thin neck and lifting them from the floor. They kicked out, hitting only air, and pulled at the fingers around their neck.

"They're not ready yet," the doll gasped out. "These things take time, plus I have other clients before you." The fingers tightened, and Evinzoneve's vision was starting to grow black at the edges.

"Don't you think I take a little more priority before your other clients? Aren't I the one that keeps the other Factions off your trail?" Klax grinned at the struggling doll. "How 'bout we make a deal, Evi. You give me everything you have, and I don't send you to the Hive." Evinzoneve glared down at the Galran with clouded eyes, but breathing was starting to become increasingly difficult.

"Fine," they hissed through gritted teeth.

"Good girl," Klax praised, dropping the doll into a heap on the floor. They rubbed their bruising neck with one hand, pointing to a section of crates with the other.

"Everything that's ready for shipment is marked with red." Klax nodded with approval, signaling to the group behind him. The previously stationary shadows moved toward the crates and began loading them onto a small hovercraft.

Once everything was loaded and the rest of the Faction had left the underground hangar, Klax looked down on Evinzoneve once more.

"I'll be adding what was missing to next month's quota. Try to make your deadline next time, deary." And without a glance back, the Faction had left. Evinzoneve picked themselves up and walked to a table covered in parts and boards of controls. A crate lid slid open, and Lance poked his head out.

"Are we good to come out now?" the Red Paladin asked, only to be shoved out a moment later by the other teen.

"Who were those guys?" Keith asked Evinzoneve's back, stepping over the fallen Lance to approach the doll. They kept their back turned, pressing buttons and flipping switches.

"Buyers," they answered shortly.

"They didn't sound like buyers. More like hustlers. Or mafia!" Lance interjected once he was on his feet. Evinzoneve huffed sharply.

"It's none of your concern. If you're done here, you can leave. I don't need some 'Paladins of Voltron', so go look for your princess in another castle." They slammed their hand down on their board in frustration. "They took apart my automatic repair. Bastards."

A sudden static erupted through all three of their helmets.

"Keith? Lance? Can you hear me?"

"Pidge!" Lance exclaimed.

"Where are you guys? We found your Lions but you weren't in them. Oh, man, we were so worried. We thought you were dead or something." A second voice came on over the radio.

"We're alright, Hunk. Red went down and we were found by someone who lives here." Keith reassured the people on the other side of the conversation.

"Are they the ones who sent out the distress beacon?" A third, accented voice questioned, and Evinzoneve was growing irritated.

"Who the hell hacked my communication network?!" they shouted, finally turning on the two Paladins behind them.

"Oh, that'd be me. It wasn't really too hard. I just had to find a frequency that could make it through the dust interference of the planet's storms. It was really smart, actually, to hide it in plain sight, using the magnetic dust to amplify the signal only for those who were actively looking for it," the first voice -Pidge- explained. Evinzoneve threw up their hands in frustration and turned back to their control board, mumbling to themself. "Also, we're closing in on your location now. We spotted a Faction fleet on our way here, so it's best if we hurry and leave," Pidge added.

"About that," Keith started. "The signal was a false alarm."

"False alarm?" Allura inquired. "Are you saying the Atlas glitched?"

"No, this chick here just doesn't wanna be saved even though she was just hustled by some of the Faction!" Lance shouted. "Plus she's a sketchy weapons dealer and tried to kill us!"

"She what?! Oh man, you guys need to get out of there, fast!" Hunk worriedly stated. Evinzoneve sighed.

"Uh, Hunk, Lance, they can hear you still," Keith replied slowly. The doll waved their arm at the two Paladins.

"Go already. I told you I didn't mean to signal you guys. Keep the armor, since I'm sure yours is buried under what used to be my front door." Keith frowned slightly and stepped forward to stand beside the smaller person.

"Come with us. We can take you to a safer planet and protect you from the Faction," the Black Paladin tried to persuade them, much to the Red Paladin's dismay. Evinzoneve turned away again and walked around the table.

"I don't need it. Once my door is repaired, I'll be fine." They busied themselves with sorting through some tools, dropping a few into a nearby bucket after close, stalling inspections. Keith looked at the gaping hole at the end of the hangar, then back down to the grey-haired person crouched on the floor.

"And how long will that take you? And then how long after that until the Faction or someone else blasts it down again, huh?" Lance and the three on the other side of the radio fell silent as their leader berated this person they knew nothing about. Evinzoneve bit their tongue, trying to come up with a retort. What the Black Paladin had stated was true, though. "You look like the only person crazy enough to live out here, so why stay?" He drove further. Evinzoneve clenched their fist, but then relaxed, surrendering their pride.

"Fine. I'll accept your offer." They stood, glaring down the Black Paladin from behind their tinted mask. Keith smiled slightly in victory. Evinzoneve turned from them once again, and walked into a cluster of crates. A shadow fell over the vicinity, and the Paladins looked to see that the remaining Lions had arrived.

"Woah, that's a lot of junk," Hunk gaped in awe. Lance started back toward the entrance of the hangar, while Keith hung back to wait for their new crewmate. Evinzoneve reemerged with a pack slung over their shoulder and a large trunk dragging behind them.

"Got everything?" Keith asked, offering a hand to carry something for the smaller being. They walked past the Paladin, begrudgingly leaving behind the large majority of their collection of spare parts and half-finished weaponry.

"We got Red untangled before we got here." Pidge explained, and the Red and Black Paladins were greeted by their Lions once they climbed their way over the crumpled remains of the rusted door.

"Evinzoneve, you can ride with me back to the Atlas." Keith motioned to the Black Lion, but the doll-like person simply nodded, remaining silent. The two entered the Lion, and soon the group was headed back to the Atlas.


End file.
